ATLANTA (AP) – Hospitals and patients have sued to block a new nationwide liver transplant policy that they say will waste viable livers, lead to fewer transplants and likely cause deaths.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the United Network for Organ Sharing hastily adopted the new policy and based it on faulty assumptions, according to the suit filed Monday in Atlanta federal court.
At issue is a change in how patients are prioritized for liver transplants. Where a patient lives affects whether he or she will get a timely liver transplant or die waiting. Some parts of the country have fewer available organs – and higher demand for them – than others.
The change set to go into effect on April 30 redraws the map that governs how donated livers are distributed.
United Network, a nonprofit that manages the U.S. organ transplant system and devised the new system, said in a statement the new policy “provides a fairer, more equitable system for all liver patients – no matter where they live – as they wait for a lifesaving transplant.”